Yesterday was my first–and last–ward council meeting. It seems that, over the weekend, the Church revised some procedures and, as part of these changes, eliminated the ward activities committee as a standing calling. Now “one-shot” committees are called on an as-needed basis for individual activities. Kristy and I will stay on through the completion of the ward Christmas party, but we’ll be released after that.
Monthly Archives: November 2010
Brenna and Tutankhamun
Saturday morning Brenna and I ended up talking about archeology real treasure. I painted florid descriptions of what is likely the most famous discovery of “treasure” in the last hundred years or so: the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb. We talked about what archeologists were and how they studied the past to learn new things.
I told her all about how “King Tut” had died thousands of years ago and been buried with incredible wealth. We discussed how mummies were, in fact, real, but they didn’t really go around like monsters, trying to catch people. We ended up hitting my computer and browsing through a few galleries, and she was utterly fascinated by photographs of Tutankhamun’s funerary mask (solid gold!) and even photos of his unwrapped mummy being CT scanned.
We left the house to run some errands and ended up browsing through the semiannual book sale at the library. While there I came across the perfect find, a treasure in its own right: a book detailing, in full color, Tutankhamun’s treasure. I bought it for Brenna (it was less than a dollar), who was nearly squealing, she was so excited to have this book for her very own.
Yesterday we sat down and read the book together. At the beginning was a section that detailed the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb by Professor Carter in the early 20th century. Following that were over 50 pages of full-page photographs, each of a treasure from the tomb. Brenna was blown away, to say the least. We had a lot of fun discussing the importance of the vulture, cobra, and scarab to ancient Egyptians. She really liked the gold funerary mask and the various necklaces, especially one shaped like a falcon.
The book also contained quite a few black-and-white photographs taken by the original photographer back when the tomb was first opened. It was neat to see how disorganized everything was (as the tomb had been robbed twice, thousands of years ago).
Really, what was most special was showing Brenna how should could learn about anything she wanted. With books and the Internet, she really can learn about anything that interests her. She’s asked that we study the pyramids next, so hopefully we can find some good materials on that topic.
Push the button, Max!
We just finished watching The Great Race. I’d forgotten what a fun movie it was. Kristy was bored through the first half, but she seemed to enjoy the second. I think my favorite part is still the Great Leslie finally, after two-and-a-half hours of pristine untouchable-ness (a real word, I’m sure), getting creamed by a pie. I also rather liked Professor Fate glowering all the time. The actors must have had such fun making that movie.
Tumultuous happenings
It’s been a crazy few days. The weekend was anything but relaxing, which Halloween activities, Brenna’s party, Brenna’s actual birthday on Sunday, chores, and at least a dozen other things that just seem to pop up when least convenient.
At least last week turned out all right. It cost a pretty penny, but I was able to recover most of my lost data and ended up losing only a few days’ worth of work rather than two months’ worth. Unfortunately I did end up losing a bunch of comments from writing group and most of my plot notes. It’s still baffling how both my primary files and all backups (all of which were on separate drives) could simultaneously be deleted, with absolutely nothing else affected. I’ve increased the number of backups, and hopefully the root cause won’t crop up again. I find writing to be difficult enough as it is; recreating something from scratch after it’s been deleted is nothing short of discouraging.
Now work is changing in odd ways. I’m not sure if these changes are an odd shift in a neutral direction or if they’re the first quiet portents of further changes (for good or ill). I really hope that the powers-that-be will provide answers and clarify the situation.